From the bestselling author of THE LIONS OF LUCERNE and PATH OF THE ASSASSIN comes another electrifying international thriller featuring all-American hero Scot Harvath, as he plunges into the frigid heart of the Russian tundra to save the fragile state of the union. On a cold January morning, the United States awakes to discover that an old enemy, one long believed dead and buried, has crawled out of its grave to lay siege to the world's only superpower. With the stunning discovery that enhanced Soviet-made suitcase nukes have been secreted in America's major cities, President Jack Rutledge gathers his National Security Council to weigh the feasibility of a first strike against the Russian Federation. There's only one problem. For over two decades, the Russians have been funnelling international aid money into a top secret air defence system, which has just been brought on-line and which will render any conventional attack upon their country utterly ineffective. After exhausting all of his other options, and with Soviet sleeper agents preparing to detonate their deadly payloads across the United States, the president turns to the nation's final hope, ex-Navy SEAL and Secret Service Agent Scot Harvath. As high-voltage and timely as they come, STATE OF THE UNION is a frighteningly real, headline-ripping tale of espionage and intrigue that will keep readers guessing until the last tantalizing piece of the puzzle locks into place.

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP A collection of short works by one of America's most revered, iconoclastic, and enduring voices? Mark Twain. EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: — A concise introduction that gives readers important background information — A chronology of the author's life and work — A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context — An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations — Detailed explanatory notes — Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work — Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction — A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

«Little Earthquakes» tells the story of three new mothers in Philadelphia. There's Becky, the chef, Kelly, the venture-capitalist, and Ayinde, who is married to Philadelphia's most beloved basketball star. The book tells the story of their friendship and the trials they face against the background of new motherhood.»

Enduring Literature Illuminated by Practical Scholarship. An idealistic professor transforms an unsophisticated Cockney girl into a refined young lady in this classic. drama set in turn-of-the-century London. This Enriched Classic Edition includes: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information. A chronology of the author's life and work. A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context. An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations. Detailed explanatory notes. Critical analysis including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work. Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction. A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience. Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential. Series edited by Cynthia Brantley Johnson.

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED. BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP. The classic Gothic tale of horror that explores the pleasures and dangers of a life of decadence. EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: — A concise introduction that gives readers important background information — A chronology of the author's life and work — A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context — An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations — Detailed explanatory notes — Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work — Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction — A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential. SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON.

At age seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father's Philadelphia luncheonette, Hoagie City. Within a year, Gia was one of the top models of the late 1970's, gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, partying at New York's Studio 54 and the Mudd Club, and redefining the industry's standard of beauty. She was the darling of moguls and movie stars, royalty and rockers. Gia was also a girl in pain, desperate for her mother's approval—and a drug addict on a tragic slide toward oblivion, who started going directly from $10,000-a-day fashion shoots to the heroin shooting galleries on New York's Lower East Side. Finally blackballed from modeling, Gia entered a vastly different world on the streets of New york and Atlantic City, and later in a rehab clinic. At twenty-six, she became on of the first women in America to die of AIDS, a hospital welfare case visited only by rehab friends and what remained of her family. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Gia's gamily, lovers, friends, and colleagues, Thing of Beauty creates a poignant portrait of an unforgettable character—and a powerful narrative about beauty and sexuality, fame and objectification, mothers and daughters, love and death.

A 13-year old girl sets off on a journey to become a witch. In the process, she learns how to be a woman. Based on the movie of the same name, this prestige format, lavishly illustrated hard-bound book gives fans a rare glimpse into the creative process of Academy Award-winning director Hayo Miyazaki.

An epic tale of the path to power of Vladimir Putin, who emerged from obscurity to become one of the world's most conflicted and important leaders. Vladimir Putin rose out of Soviet deprivation to the pinnacle of influence in the new Russian nation. He came to office in 2000 as a reformer, cutting taxes and expanding property rights, bringing a measure of order and eventually prosperity to millions whose only experience of democracy in the early years following the Soviet collapse was instability, poverty and criminality. But soon Putin orchestrated the preservation of a new kind of authoritarianism, consolidating power, reasserting his country's might, brutally crushing revolts and swiftly dispatching dissenters, even as he retained the support of many. New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief, Steven Lee Myers follows Putin's path in a gripping, page-turning narrative about Russian power and prestige, elucidating the cool and calculating leader whose ambitions are as great as Peter's, his means as ruthless as Ivan the Terrible's. It's a path that mirrors the growing pains of a nation stretching from the ends of Europe to the Pacific Ocean, and is key to understanding the new Russian Colossus.

As the Charmed Ones know, it's difficult to adjust to the ideas of having powers and saving innocents — that's one of the reasons that their Grams bound their powers until the sisters were ready to receive them. In fact, many witch clans keep the powers of their young dormant until the recipient of the power reaches a certain age. In Juliana O'Farrell's clan, that age is thirteen — the exact age of her daughter, Lily. By the day after her thirteenth birthday, though, Lily's powers haven't manifested, and Juliana's worried that a demon may have stripped her daughter's magic. Enter the Halliwell sisters. But Lily's too much of a typical teen to welcome witch chaperones. She'd much rather sneak out to hang with her rebellious friend, Drew. Could Drew's bad behavior be related to Lily's missing magic? It's going to take the Power of Three to get to the bottom of this adolescent angst!

At first Piper thinks it's just a coincidence that she's seeing kids everywhere; since she and Leo have been talking about starting a family, she thinks she's just noticing them more. But then the kids start showing up on the Charmed Ones' front porch and coming into the house uninvited. No matter where Piper dispatches them, they're right back at Halliwell Manor minutes later. And they seem to be forming an orchestra. No one will listen to Piper, or obey her, or even give her a moment alone. Piper starts to wonder if she and Leo can handle starting a family. While Piper's contemplating diaper rash, Phoebe finds out about a rash of disappearances in San Francisco. Musicians have vanished all over the city, and they were all candidates to conduct a youth symphony. So how has Paige's new love managed to stick around long enough to be the symphony leader? And how does band practice at the Manor fit in with all of this? The Charmed Ones smell a rat, but can they lead all of their Innocents out of danger before the final note is played?

«As compelling and disturbing as when it was first published in the midst of the Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate continues to enthrall readers with its electrifying action and shocking climax.... Sgt. Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the stepson of an influential senator...and the perfect assassin. Brainwashed during his time as a P.O.W., he is a «sleeper» — a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal. He will act without question, no matter what order he is made to carry out. To stop Shaw and those who now control him, his former commanding officer, Bennett Marco, must uncover the truth behind a twisted conspiracy of torture, betrayal, and power that will lead him to the highest levels of the government — and into the darkest recesses of his own mind....»

After six wildly successful and critically acclaimed season, HBO's Sex and the City lowered its curtain with an extraordinary finale befitting its remarkable run. Now Sex and the City, the first true comedy about sex and love from a female point of view (and the show that made cosmopolitans and designer shoes part of every single woman's night out), lives on in this luscious, uniquely entertaining, and one-of-a-kind book. Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell, the official companion book, celebrates the show with behind-the-scenes stories on all six seasons and original interview with each of the primary actors. Ever wonder which designer made that outrageous outfit of Carrie's? What real-life stories inspired those shocking episodes? How many dates the fabulous foursome have really been on? Packed with over 750 full-color photographs, this stunning volume will answer all these questions and more with information not available anywhere eels. Topped off with a introduction by Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell will excite anyone who has experienced even the slightest flirtation with the sexiest, funniest show on television.

Kit Kincade, American, with diamond-studded ears and friends in low places, believes women are little more than a life support system to an ovary. Shelly Green, pinstripe-underpanted, cultured, classical guitarist, thinks optimism is an eye disease and hates all men. The perfect pair? Yes, according to a 'Desperate and Dateless' reality TV competition. A computer has matched them — physically and emotionally — with huge financial rewards if they can survive their five-star honeymoon on a paradise island. Kit and Shelly meet the day they are to be married... and it's hate at first sight Love may be blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

«The world-class forensic anthropologist and «New York Times» bestselling author explores the shocking story behind a puzzling cache of bones in this powerful Temperance Brennan thriller. Includes a new bonus Epilogue.»

Celebrity magazine writer Madison Castelli digs into her mob hitman father's past in order to discover the truth about her mother's death and encounters a vortex of greed, lust, and deception that threatens her life.

Mark Twain's darkly comic short classic set in the antebellum South stands as a literary condemnation of slavery and racial inequality. EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: — A concise introduction that gives readers important background information — A chronology of the author's life and work — A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context — An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations — Detailed explanatory notes — Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work — Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction — A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

«In her latest «New York Times» bestseller, Jackie Collins explores love and marriage in Hollywood with the touch of a sizzling insider, making for this glam-drenched, fast-paced novel of lust, infidelity, and sweet revenge.»

«Contained along with the complete text of Shakespeare's classic tragedy about the «two star-crossed lovers» from Verona is full explanatory notes, scene-by-scene plot summaries, a key to famous lines and phrases, and illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books.»

When Avram became King of Detina, he announced his intention to liberate the blond serfs from their ties to the land. This noble assertion immediately plunged the kingdom into a civil war that would prove long and bloody, and set brother against brother. The northern provinces, dependent on the labour of their serfs, seceded, choosing Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king. To save the kingdom, Avram sent armies clad in grey against the north, battling Geoffrey's army, arrayed in blue. Though King Avram held more land and wealth than Geoffrey, Geoffrey's men were better soldiers and the north had better and more powerful wizards. Still, as the war raged on, the tide turned against the north. Even so, the war is far from over. Earlier, the north had held an almost impregnable position — but was overrun when an overconfident sorcerer's spell went awry. Use of sorcery was often unpredictable, and in the more mundane aspects of the war, battle plans could also go awry. The south seemed to be winning, but the outcome was far from certain...

Porter`s value chain enables managers to isolate the underlying sources of buyer value that will command a premium price, and the reasons why one product or service substitutes for another. He shows how competitive advantage lies in activities and in the way they relate to each other, to supplier activities, and to customer activities.